One by one the scattered remnants of the rebel army are being tracked down in their homes and taken into custody. The facility with which a Sinn Feiner and murderer can become to all outward appearances a law-abiding citizen makes the rounding up of these criminals a slow and difficult process.
As the 489 Sinn Fein prisoners who have been sent to England embarked last night for Holyhead, on their way to Stafford, I had an opportunity of scrutinizing them at close quarters. There were two distinct types. Many, perhaps most, were of the rabble class to be found in every large town, and especially in a seaport — men in whom the spirit of revolt against the established order of things is at all times latent, and who miss no chance of giving themselves up to lawlessness. These were chiefly without uniform of any kind. Some were bareheaded. One or two carried folded blankets under their arms. The second type of prisoner was the “intellectual”, the man who has some education and who sees visions. As a rule he was a young man with a high forehead and thin, firmly-set lips. Most of the men of this class were in uniform, and wore it with an air of defiance.
Almost without exception the prisoners were utterly exhausted. Heavy eyes, haggard cheeks, drooping shoulders, and a general limpness of body told their tale of sleepless nights and harassed days. Before they had been five minutes in the boat many of them had stretched themselves out on the floor below the deck and dropped off to sleep. Those who were too tired or anxious to sleep crouched together, scarcely speaking a word one to another.
Among the prisoners were one or two who, in spite of male garb, were decidedly woman-like in features and gait. I am told that the Countess Markovitch, who was one of the insurgents who held houses by St Stephen’s Green, and was the last to surrender, wore men’s clothing, and that among the prisoners in the hands of the military authorities are several other women and one or two young girls who also dressed themselves as men. They showed themselves particularly aggressive as snipers. A couple of “officers” were included in the batch of rebels shipped this evening. Needless to say, they were treated in no way differently from the rest.